It’s easy to get distracted in our everyday life and spend our time and energy on things that don’t really matter. By focusing on what does matter you will shift your life in significant ways. Below I’ve outlined a simple process to help you to identify what your priorities are, which are most important and how to spend time on them . Grab yourself a pen and paper and let’s begin…
1. IDENTIFY WHAT YOUR PRIORITIES ARE
What are your priorities? Write down a list of the things that are important to you. This could be love, family, work, health, friends, or it may be something more specific like getting a job, finishing a project, etc. Try not to write down too many as you want to ensure that you can reasonably balance your priorities. So if you find you have more than 8-10, group some of them together.
Your priorities will often change over time so do this exercise on a regular basis. You can do it weekly, fortnightly or monthly but I don’t suggest doing it less often than that.
2. ALLOCATE HOW MUCH TIME/ENERGY YOU WANT TO GIVE EACH ONE
Now that you have your priority areas, how much time and energy do you want to assign to each one? Give each priority a percentage score out of 100. At the end of the process all your priorities should equal 100%.
3. EVALUATE WHERE YOU ARE AGAINST WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
Have a look at each of your priority areas and identify whether you are giving them the amount of time and energy that you just allocated. Put a tick next to those that you are and a cross next to those that you aren’t. If you are allocating too much time to a priority give it an extra tick.
As a reference if you gave one of your priorities a score of 10% that you want to devote your time and energy to then that’s about three quarters of a day in the week or around three days in the month. If you allocated 30% of your time and energy then that’s just over two days in the week or around nine days in the month.
4. DETERMINE WHAT ACTIONS YOU CAN REASONABLY TAKE TO CREATE CHANGE
The priorities that you marked with a cross are the areas that you need to create change in so that you can give them the time and energy that you have allocated to them. Think about what actions you can take that will give you the results you want. Make sure that they are reasonable and achievable because if you make them out of reach you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. Success is the name of the game here so you want to set yourself up to succeed.
You will also need to create change on the priorities that you marked with two ticks (you’re spending too much time and energy on them). Give from these areas to those that you’re not spending enough time and energy on. Identify what actions you can eliminate or reduce to give you the extra time and energy you need for your other priorities.
5. BE COMMITTED
The final step in this process is to commit to your priorities and the actions you identified. Accountability is a great way to keep yourself focused and motivated on meeting your targets so write each priority up with how often you want to do it in the week or month and then mark it off each time you do it. Keep it somewhere where you’ll see it regularly so you can keep track of your progress.
If you follow these steps, coupled with positive thoughts and beliefs about yourself and your ability and worthiness to have what you desire, you WILL create significant change in your life. Let go of any doubts, insecurities or negativity that has held you back in the past. You have every right to focus on your priorities and create positive change within yourself and your life and the only person that can make it happen is YOU!
1. IDENTIFY WHAT YOUR PRIORITIES ARE
What are your priorities? Write down a list of the things that are important to you. This could be love, family, work, health, friends, or it may be something more specific like getting a job, finishing a project, etc. Try not to write down too many as you want to ensure that you can reasonably balance your priorities. So if you find you have more than 8-10, group some of them together.
Your priorities will often change over time so do this exercise on a regular basis. You can do it weekly, fortnightly or monthly but I don’t suggest doing it less often than that.
2. ALLOCATE HOW MUCH TIME/ENERGY YOU WANT TO GIVE EACH ONE
Now that you have your priority areas, how much time and energy do you want to assign to each one? Give each priority a percentage score out of 100. At the end of the process all your priorities should equal 100%.
3. EVALUATE WHERE YOU ARE AGAINST WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
Have a look at each of your priority areas and identify whether you are giving them the amount of time and energy that you just allocated. Put a tick next to those that you are and a cross next to those that you aren’t. If you are allocating too much time to a priority give it an extra tick.
As a reference if you gave one of your priorities a score of 10% that you want to devote your time and energy to then that’s about three quarters of a day in the week or around three days in the month. If you allocated 30% of your time and energy then that’s just over two days in the week or around nine days in the month.
4. DETERMINE WHAT ACTIONS YOU CAN REASONABLY TAKE TO CREATE CHANGE
The priorities that you marked with a cross are the areas that you need to create change in so that you can give them the time and energy that you have allocated to them. Think about what actions you can take that will give you the results you want. Make sure that they are reasonable and achievable because if you make them out of reach you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. Success is the name of the game here so you want to set yourself up to succeed.
You will also need to create change on the priorities that you marked with two ticks (you’re spending too much time and energy on them). Give from these areas to those that you’re not spending enough time and energy on. Identify what actions you can eliminate or reduce to give you the extra time and energy you need for your other priorities.
5. BE COMMITTED
The final step in this process is to commit to your priorities and the actions you identified. Accountability is a great way to keep yourself focused and motivated on meeting your targets so write each priority up with how often you want to do it in the week or month and then mark it off each time you do it. Keep it somewhere where you’ll see it regularly so you can keep track of your progress.
If you follow these steps, coupled with positive thoughts and beliefs about yourself and your ability and worthiness to have what you desire, you WILL create significant change in your life. Let go of any doubts, insecurities or negativity that has held you back in the past. You have every right to focus on your priorities and create positive change within yourself and your life and the only person that can make it happen is YOU!
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